DRC: IDPs in Equateur province begin returning home

The first of thousands of displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s Equateur province returned home as part of a pilot project being undertaken jointly by the government and the UN. On Friday, 375 internally displaced persons (IDPs) left Equateur’s provincial capital, Mbandaka for their homes in and around the town of Basankusu, 240 km northeast, Social Affairs Minister Ingele Ifoto told IRIN on Monday. Almost three million people displaced by five years of war have still not returned to their homes in various parts of the DRC, despite a December 2002 peace agreement between the government and all rebel groups and the creation, in June 2003, of a government of national unity.